Ren Wokuang actually crossed over to the Asura Plane in Hell!
Only that could explain how the Hell Asura would be sealed here in the Asura's Gate treasure trove.
The Asura chained on the altar had noticed Huang Xiaolong's presence in the hall and a violent emotion exploded in its scarlet eyes. A menacing deep roar came from its throat, instantly flooding the entire hall with an incredible murderous aura.
The Asuras in Hell were born for war and battle. The thirst for blood was a natural part of their core, hence, the fierce murderous energy surrounding it was part of its being, not solely directed at Huang Xiaolong.
Even though the Asura was chained and sealed to the altar using mysterious talisman symbols by his Master Ren Wokuang, the brutal and murderous aura it exuded still awed Huang Xiaolong.
Huang Xiaolong scanned around the altar. His sight finally fell on the altar's left corner where a line of minuscule ancient characters was inscribed. With the first glance, Huang Xiaolong had already determined that this line of text was left behind by his Master, Ren Wokuang. The text stated that if he could refine the Hell Asura, thereby possessing the Hell Asura's bloodline, his practice of the Asura Tactics would enhance by leaps and bounds with only half the effort, progressing at unimaginable speed.
The message also explained the method of refining the Asura Bloodline, as well as the way to seal an Asura.
Reading carefully from beginning to end, Huang Xiaolong's gaze once again turned to the chained Asura; with a soft tap of his foot, he leaped up onto the altar.
Watching as Huang Xiaolong approached, deep growls sounded continuously from its throat, its arms and legs struggled under the sealing chains noisily. However, Huang Xiaolong noticed that the more the Asura struggled, the more the chains tightened around it.
Huang Xiaolong relaxed a little more after seeing this. He then ran the Asura Tactics according to the method stated by Ren Wokuang on the altar. Ten fingers bent into claws that pierced into the Asura's chest, driving straight to the heart. A powerful suction force came from Huang Xiaolong's palm and he watched as strands of dark red mist-like energy molded into a pillar and flew towards him.
Huang Xiaolong quickly sat down in a meditative pose, absorbing all the dark red energy into his body, slowly refining it, guiding it into his blood.
The Asura's struggles grew ever more zealous, furious growls echoed in the hall as the brutal aura it emitted intensified.
Time trickled by and half a day passed.
Gradually, the Asura's struggles weakened and stopped, its body slowly drying up. At that moment, Huang Xiaolong's body was enshrouded in a dark red mist while meditating on the altar. His body began to exude the same brutal, murderous aura, similar to the Asura. The vague ethereal aura began to condense, becoming denser around Huang Xiaolong.
Daylight slowly receded.
From time to time, scales similar to the Asura would appear on Huang Xiaolong's body, and even two short horns vaguely manifested on his forehead.
Three had days passed in the same manner when Huang Xiaolong suddenly opened his eyes. In the depths of his eyes, vigorous Asura qi surged and rumbled, akin to an angry sea; the dark red energy mist shrouding his body was sucked into his body all at once until nothing was left.
Huang Xiaolong got to his feet moments later.
To his delight, refining the Asura bloodline not only made the Asura qi inside his body become more pure, it even allowed him to advance to mid-Fourth Order Saint realm.
"This is...?!" While Huang Xiaolong was caught in his delight, he suddenly noticed something else and was shocked when he caught sight of the Asura scale armor on his body. His hand swiftly reached up to touch his forehead and was shocked to discover that two short horns were protruding out!
His Master did not mention that his outer appearance would resemble an Asura after he refined the Asura bloodline according to the methods left on the altar.
'What do I do now?! Please don't tell me that I will have to keep this hellish Asura appearance forever!'
Judging from a human's aesthetic point of view, the features of an Asura were too hideous to describe, a monster that was neither mammal nor reptile!
What to do?! Huang Xiaolong attempted everything he could think of, trying to revert his looks back to his original form. After several hours that felt like an eternity, he finally found a way to manipulate his Asura-like appearance.
His outward physical appearance of an Asura was due to the Asura bloodline inside Huang Xiaolong's blood, thus he merely needed to suppress the Asura bloodline in his blood. Moreover, suppressing the Asura bloodline didn't affect his Asura Tactics cultivation, allowing him to continue enjoying the benefits of the bloodline at the same time.
Equivalently, if he wanted to change to the Asura appearance, all he needed to do was release the suppression on his bloodline.
Finding the solution to his unexpected 'new look', Huang Xiaolong heaved in great relief. The chained Asura that was refined by him had lost all vitality and essence, leaving a dried corpse on the altar.
"Refining one Asura could enhance my Asura Tactics cultivation speed. I wonder, if I refined more of them, could it further expedite my progress?" Huang Xiaolong toyed with the idea.
If that was the case, he had to find an opportunity later to go to Hell's Asura Plane.
An Asura's bloodline contained an innate Asura qi, so refining the Asura bloodline would aid Huang Xiaolong's future breakthroughs in the Asura Tactics, this was more effective than swallowing a hundred Divine Dragon Pellets.
Hell consisted of three planes—the Asura Plane, the Ghost Plane, and Souls Plane.
However, all three of them were higher planes. If Huang Xiaolong wanted to head to the Asura Plane, he had to at least break through to God Realm, because only after breaking into God Realm would one have the ability to pass through space and time.
Nevertheless, if Huang Xiaolong managed to practice the Asura Tactics until the tenth stage, he could open a door to Hell that would connect him straight to the Asura Plane. The tenth stage seemed far and unattainable, otherwise his Master wouldn't have been stuck at the ninth stage.
Huang Xiaolong pulled himself out from his musings and looked around the treasure trove. In fact, the treasure trove was only so big, just the altar had taken close to half of the entire space, with the rest of the hall being separated into a few rooms.
Huang Xiaolong leaped off the altar, landing right in front of the first room. Blood red crystal ores were piled to the ceiling in the first room. Appearance wise, they resembled the Dragon Blood Crystals that Huang Xiaolong had, but these crystal ores glowed a deeper and more sinister blood red.
What kind of crystal ores were these? Huang Xiaolong was astonished, for he felt that those red crystals contained an energy that exceeded the Dragon Blood Crystals! It was even purer! The energy inside emitted a faint Hellish aura, which was greatly beneficial to Huang Xiaolong's Asura Tactics cultivation.
"Hell Royal Blood Stone!" Huang Xiaolong spotted several small characters on the wall. Again, it was his Master Ren Wokuang's inscription.
Huang Xiaolong's eyes widened further; these were high grade energy stones used in Hell?
Hell was a higher plane. Even the lowest grade of energy stones condensed from that kind of rich environment, in a lower bound world like Martial Spirit World, were treasures that could throw the world into a storm.
A feverish look emerged in Huang Xiaolong's eyes. With these Hell Royal Blood Stones on top of his Asura bloodline, he believed that his Asura Tactics would be able to break through without bottlenecks.
Huang Xiaolong transferred all the Hell Royal Blood Stones into the Asura Ring and then moved on to the rest of the rooms. In these rooms were some spirit pellets, rare elixirs, and some battle skills and cultivation techniques from other sects that his Master Ren Wokuang had collected over the years. From the lowest grade to Heaven grade, there were at least a thousand of them!
Still, the two things weighing heavily on Huang Xiaolong now were the Dragon God Grass and Shi Xiaofei's safety. These various battle skills and cultivation techniques from different sources had to wait until he returned.
Huang Xiaolong flew out from the Asura's Gate treasure trove and closed the heavy doors again. He dallied no further, leaving the Heavenly Sky Phoenix Mountain and heading in the direction of the Treasure Oblast.